Catalogue description Records of Sanitary, Water and Sewerage Division and of the Engineering Inspectorate

The department was formed in 1872 from the clerical staff of the former Local Government Act Office of the Home Office. The Engineering Inspectorate was also taken over as a subdepartment responsible to it. The department took over all the work of the Local Government Act Office with the exception of that relating to byelaws and audit appeals, and was therefore responsible for supervision of local government services in the field of environmental health.

Applications for loan sanctions from sanitary authorities were considered by the department while the relevant plans were examined by the Engineering Inspectorate, and when the formal sanction of the board was obtained the instrument was framed and issued by the department. From 1888 it also dealt with approval of loans to municipal corporations, a function previously performed by the Treasury, as well as those to the new councils established by the Local Government Act of that year. The remaining financial powers of the Treasury under local authority enactments were transferred in 1906.

The department was also concerned with applications for provisional orders under the Public Health Act 1875 and other acts authorising compulsory purchase of land and the constitution and revision of sanitary districts, but the actual drafting of the order and its passage through Parliament was dealt with by the Order Department. From 1888 the Sanitary Department was responsible for preliminary work in connection with the alteration of the boundaries of municipal boroughs and electoral divisions.

Until 1878 the department was charged with ensuring that loans advanced by the Public Works Loan Board to local authorities were spent on the intended purpose, but this function then passed to the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund and Loans Department. The department was also responsible for the supervision of water undertakings outside London. Later a special Water, Sewerage Disposal Branch was formed.

Inspection and public enquiries were conducted by the engineering inspectors on behalf of the department, and in 1911 a geological adviser was appointed to provide professional advice on general problems of water resources and specific water undertakings. In March 1919 a public cleansing and sanitary inspector was appointed. From 1884, when the Turnpikes and Highways Department was dissolved, the department was responsible for correspondence relating to highways and turnpike trusts.

The Ministry of Health's Local Government Divisions took over the functions formerly exercised by the Sanitary Department of the Local Government Board.

Functions relating to national water supply and conservation and to sewerage were taken over from the Ministry of Health in 1951 and a Water Supply and Sewerage Division was established to deal with them. It was in contact not only with local authorities but also with river boards and statutory water companies. Under the Water Act 1945 it was involved in the regrouping of water undertakings basing the operation on information collected by the Engineering Inspectorate through water supply surveys.

Other work arose from the operation of the Water Act 1958. This replaced the minister's emergency powers to deal with droughts and gave him authority to take exceptional measures to deal with a temporary shortage of water however and whenever it might arise. By the late1950s it was apparent that a greater degree of national and regional planning and control of water resources was needed than had been envisaged in 1945.

Following a report by a subcommittee of the Central Advisory Water Committee, which was responsible for advising the minister on water questions, the Water Resources Act 1963 was passed. This resulted in the replacement of the 32 river boards set up in 1948 by 27 river authorities, together with the Thames Conservancy and the Lee Conservancy. A Water Resources Board was also established to guide the work of these authorities. The 1963 act, which came fully into operation in April 1965, removed some functions from the ministry but added others, especially responsibility for supplies to farmers and industrialists as well as the main public supply.

After 1963 the Water Division, as it had been known since 1956, was closely linked with Local Government Division A. Between 1965 to 1967 responsibility for the Water Resources Board was exercised by the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. Responsibility for water issues passed to the Department of the Environment in 1970 and Water Divisions were set up to deal with them.

Public water supply in England and Wales is in the hands of statutory companies, local authorities and Joint Water Boards.

Water companies and the larger local authorities operate under powers derived from local Acts of Parliament: other local authority undertakings derive powers from the Public Health Acts.

The Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, provided a code of practice for those bodies who sought power to provide piped water supplies.

The cholera epidemics of the 1830's and 1840's led to a strong movement for sanitary reform and the first Public Health Act in 1848 enabled Boards of Health, the forerunners of local authorities as we know them today, to provide water and to make provision for sewering their districts.

The Public Health Act, 1875 was a consolidating measure and remained in force until superseded by the Public Health Act, 1936, which consolidated the water supply provisions in previous Public Health Acts, and is the principal statute governing sewerage and sewage disposal.

The 1936 Act also provided for the formation of Joint Water Boards, usually a combination of local authorities.

The growth of towns and industry in the last century resulted in gross pollution of many rivers and streams and the first legislation to deal with this problem was the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act, 1876.

The Public Health (Drainage of Trade Premises) Act, 1937, was a further measure in the battle against pollution by facilitating the discharge of trade effluent into public sewers.

Land drainage is primarily the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Fisheries. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is concerned where land is drained into sewers and thence into water courses.